Royal Pharmaceutical Society Boosts Website Efficiency with Percussion Software's Rhythmyx ECM Solution

London, UK - 17 October 2005 - The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB), the regulatory and professional body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales, has selected Rhythmyx Enterprise Content Management System (ECM) from Percussion Software to underpin a major web overhaul to include the Society's internet and intranet sites.

Effective management of information is crucial for the Society, which is increasingly using internet-based approaches in fulfilling its role as a regulatory body. The Society recognised the need to improve the management of its web-based information, enhance access to publicly available information and to facilitate the sharing of information within the organisation.

The Society set out to identify an appropriate ECM solution to be used at the heart of a major overhaul of the organisation's web-based information assets. Andy Langler, head of information management & technology at RPSGB: "We suffer from a problem common to many organisations that rely on technical staff to produce and update web content - this becomes a bottleneck. We were keen to overcome this and to involve a wider diversity of staff in the production and management of our web content and were looking for a solution that was simple enough to allow people with limited technical experience to contribute. From an initial shortlist of six, we whittled the choice down to two contenders, ultimately selecting Rhythmyx ECM from Percussion."

The overhaul of the internet and intranet will be carried out in two stages. The first phase will see work on the Society's main site followed by the intranet site. Other key web sites will follow in subsequent phases. Rhythmyx will enable the RPSGB to upgrade multiple sites using a single solution and effectively reuse content across the various sites. The cross-site linking functionality allows users to link content from one Rhythmyx-managed website to another while still managing the content relationship and therefore ensuring that there are never any broken links.

Rhythmyx's cloning capability facilitates creation of multiple web properties. The structure, navigation, and content of entire sites or sub-sections of sites may be cloned from one site to a new site through the use of wizards. Associated workflows and communities may also be cloned to ensure the proper approval and editorial processes take place. The scalability of the Rhythmyx licensing model provides maximum flexibility of use while ring-fencing associated costs.

From the outset of the selection process, Langler and his team were impressed by Percussion's commitment to understanding the Society's requirements. "They went to great lengths to get under the skin of what our needs were," comments Langler. "We were also extremely impressed by Rhythmyx's wide breadth of functionality. It will be enormously helpful to be able to go back to a particular date and identify changes made to information using Rhythmyx's workflow capability".

A robust enterprise content management solution, Rhythmyx manages web content, documents, digital assets, portal content and scanned images. The solution offers rich functionality out-of-the-box, (allowing customisation to be focused on meeting specific needs) and easy on-going administration by technical staff. By delivering a range of pre-built application functionality through Rhythmyx FastForward for Web Content Management (WCM), Rhythmyx allows organisations to implement the functionality they need today, whilst ensuring that they can meet tomorrow's needs with an extensible, standards-based architecture.

Joseph Wykes, managing director, European operations, Percussion Software: "We are delighted that Rhythmyx has been chosen to assist this key regulatory and professional body. The Society's decision to change the way in which content is posted on to its websites and increase the involvement of non- technical staff is yet another endorsement of the ease of use of our award-winning ECM solution. We look forward to working with the Society on its overhaul project."

About the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

"The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is the professional and regulatory body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales. It also regulates pharmacy technicians on a voluntary basis, which is expected to become statutory under anticipated legislation.

The primary objectives of the Society are to lead, regulate, develop and represent the profession of pharmacy.

The Society leads and supports the development of the profession within the context of the public benefit. This includes the advancement of science, practice, education and knowledge in pharmacy. In addition, it promotes the profession's policies and views to a range of external stakeholders in a number of different forums.

The Society has responsibility for a wide range of functions that combine to assure competence and fitness to practise. These include controlled entry into the profession, education, registration, setting and enforcing professional standards, promoting good practice, providing support for improvement, dealing with poor performance, dealing with misconduct and removal from the register."

Further information about the Society can be found at http://www.rpsgb.org.